netanyahu. secretary clinton is in cairo where she met with president mohamed morsi of egypt who's mediating the discussions. as secretary clinton carries the official white house message there is new attention being paid to the president's strategic options in the region. "the washington post" writes president obama's decision to send his top diplomat on an emergency middle east peace making mission tuesday marked an administration shift to a more active vist role in the region's affairs and offered clues to how he may use the political elbow room afforded by a second term. beyond a cease-fire agreement, the president could try to throw his political clout behind a larger, long-term solution here. so far, no deal has materialized between israel and gaza. also, a bus bombing in tel aviv could push both sides further apart. 19 people were injured, three critically, in what was the first terror attack in israel in four years. police say, however, the incident was not a suicide bombing. joining me now, former assistant secretary of state, p.j. crowley and from tel aviv, nbc news corre

been negotiating intensity. egypt's president mohamed morsi is from the muslim brother hood. it's unlike he he has been involved in negotiations with the israeli side. the only people that could negotiate between the israelis and meet with hamas and other palestinian factions are probably the intelligence agencies there. that's where we understand the negotiations to still be ongoing. there's an outlined agreement, but nobody has signed the paper. that's why i think people here are still very apprehensive this could be the final hurdle. you're talking about the presence or the arrival of u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton. there is no doubt the u.s. can play a very important role in this. it can exert a tremendous amount of leverage on the israelis to avoid a ground invasion of the gaza strip. while the u.s. does believe that israel has a right too defend itself there is a widening belief here among many, this is what is being communicated to the u.s. by egyptian officials, that a ground invasion and further military escalation will not solve this. we've been down this road b

, egypt's president mohamed morsi has met with both the head of hamas's political office and head of islamic jihad, the two biggest factions in gaza. both of them are saying that they're willing to enter truce with israel on certain conditions. these conditions are that gaza lifts a punishing blockade and siege that has been imposed on gaza since 2006 and allows the free moment movement of people in and out of the territory and supplies and medicine. they want assurances from israel that israel does not carry out any more assassinations on top palestinian leaders like the one we saw last wednesday that triggered all of this. at the same time, they want guarantees from the international community that israel will abide by these commitments. for its part israel says that the only condition it would accept is a complete cessation of rocket fire into southern israel and wants egypt to guarantee no more weapons will be smuggled into the gaza strip. both sides say they want to avert a war but really right now, they have demands and egyptian officials are hinting they have narrowed the gap